marc wilhelm | game maker

Indie Game the Movie is nothing short of a gift to game creators!

The months of preparation and dozens of emails paid off in a huge way last night for the Colorado indie game scene. I wanted so desperately to get Indie Game the Movie to be shown in my homestate of Colorado! Thanks to the down to earth nature of the film makers Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky and the Denver Film Society, it became a better night than I'd hoped for!

I was glad it all came together so perfectly for our small group of Colorado independent game developers, but there was an amazing amount of interest in indie games from the general public in Colorado and the region. I met several people who drove in from out of state to be at the event. The show more than sold out. I heard that they had to send several dozen people away! The theater only held 170 or so but it was packed and we had to bring in chairs from the lobby to seat everyone.

Indie Game the Movie is such a fantastic film because it touches on the humanity of creators. So many people who know little to nothing about games really connected with the movie and unanamously told me they have a much better understanding and greater appreciation for what being an indie game developer means.

After the screening it was oddly sublime to have an informed conversation with my parents about the intricacies of popular indie game culture such as the mental stability of Phil Fish and the expression of vulnerability through the exposed flesh of Meatboy, etc. They get it! The fact that I could bring them to see such a well crafted film that communicates so clearly the plight of creators like us is nothing short of a gift.

The Denver Film Center was kind enough to host an audience Q & A with myself and Dylan Jones of Big Boom Games in the theater and that went great. The audience was into it and there were more questions than time to answer them

There were a fair amount of people in the lobby playing the games before the show, but it was overflowing with earnest indie game fans after the show! I was personally swamped with really nice people asking me questions about my career in games and games in general and what I thought of the movie.

A locally owned game store Game On provided two XBOX 360s loaded with the games from the movie and Dylan and I brought our two local indie games RGB and St. Chicken, playable through projectors in the good sized lobby-bar. Leviathan had amazing door prizes. I hear a really nice kid won my personal copy of the original NES Legend of Zelda, I'm glad it's going to a good home :'(

Thanks to all of you that could make it and to those of you who helped us so successfully get the word out about this screening in Denver.